Aims Despite the current interest in services provided by ecosystems and the role of biodiversity,the relationship among human attitudes,biodiversity and ecosystem services has hardly been investigated.Moreover,few st...Aims Despite the current interest in services provided by ecosystems and the role of biodiversity,the relationship among human attitudes,biodiversity and ecosystem services has hardly been investigated.Moreover,few studies have examined attitudes toward nature in cross-cultural comparisons.This study investigates the attitudes of Chinese and Swiss people,both environmental experts and laypersons,toward forest biodiversity and ecosystem services.Methods Overall,640 people in China and Switzerland were interviewed with the help of a standardized questionnaire.In each country,the study population was equally divided into an urban(80 city dwellers and 80 environmental science students)and a rural(80 forest visitors and 80 farmers)study group.The 15-minute interviews took place in the cities of Beijing and Zurich and in the rural forested areas of Dujiangyan,Sichuan Province and Lake Sempach,canton Lucerne.Attitudes toward forest biodiversity were investigated with the help of color photographs that depicted both monocultures and speciesrich forests typical for China and Switzerland.Attitudes toward ecosystem services were investigated with the help of 13 statements on provisioning,regulating,cultural and supporting services of forests.Important Findings On average,Chinese participants showed no strong preferences for biodiversity,whereas the Swiss clearly preferred species-rich forests over monocultures.However,Chinese environmental science students did prefer species-rich forests and attributed to them a higher conservation value because of their higher biodiversity.Although there were no strong preferences for Chinese versus Swiss forests,all participants correctly answered that Chinese forests are more species rich in terms of plants and animals and thus found them less boring and more interesting,but also less managed,than Swiss forests.All participants highly valued the ecosystem services provided by forests;especially the regulating and supporting ones.Environmental science students and farmers placed more impo展开更多
基金This research was supported by funding from the University of Zurich and the German Science Foundation(DFG FOR 891/1).
文摘Aims Despite the current interest in services provided by ecosystems and the role of biodiversity,the relationship among human attitudes,biodiversity and ecosystem services has hardly been investigated.Moreover,few studies have examined attitudes toward nature in cross-cultural comparisons.This study investigates the attitudes of Chinese and Swiss people,both environmental experts and laypersons,toward forest biodiversity and ecosystem services.Methods Overall,640 people in China and Switzerland were interviewed with the help of a standardized questionnaire.In each country,the study population was equally divided into an urban(80 city dwellers and 80 environmental science students)and a rural(80 forest visitors and 80 farmers)study group.The 15-minute interviews took place in the cities of Beijing and Zurich and in the rural forested areas of Dujiangyan,Sichuan Province and Lake Sempach,canton Lucerne.Attitudes toward forest biodiversity were investigated with the help of color photographs that depicted both monocultures and speciesrich forests typical for China and Switzerland.Attitudes toward ecosystem services were investigated with the help of 13 statements on provisioning,regulating,cultural and supporting services of forests.Important Findings On average,Chinese participants showed no strong preferences for biodiversity,whereas the Swiss clearly preferred species-rich forests over monocultures.However,Chinese environmental science students did prefer species-rich forests and attributed to them a higher conservation value because of their higher biodiversity.Although there were no strong preferences for Chinese versus Swiss forests,all participants correctly answered that Chinese forests are more species rich in terms of plants and animals and thus found them less boring and more interesting,but also less managed,than Swiss forests.All participants highly valued the ecosystem services provided by forests;especially the regulating and supporting ones.Environmental science students and farmers placed more impo
基金supported by the Chinese Ministry of Science & Technology(project no.s G2000016209 and 2002BA516A01)the European Community(ICA4-CT-2001-10069) The Danish Research Agency
